Spicy Szechwan Chicken

ZOMG...so goood! I know I say that about almost every recipe I try. But seriously! I kicked white ass tonight making this.

Though mine looks nothing like the photo in the cookbook, it was gosh, darn golly gee whiz good.

And despite what the title says, it wasn't spicy at all. I can see how you can make it more spicy, but this batch wasn't. I'm not a huge fan of "burn your lips off" spicy. I like my spicy to be more flavorful than hot.

Spicy Szechwan Chicken
Serves 4

2 Frying chickens, cut into pieces ( I don't do fryer chickens. Too much food for a single girl, and I hate dark meat. So I did this with two chicken breasts)

Spicy Szechwan marinade:

• 3 T Chinese rice wine or dry sherry (yah so I misread this and used rice wine vinegar - not a big deal I don't think as it still kicked ass)
• 3T hoisin sauce
• 3 T thin soy sauce (I have no idea what "thin" soy sauce is. I used my ordinarily every day soy sauce - low sodium)
• 2T oyster sauce (didn't have oyster sauce, so used fish sauce)
• 2 T red wine vinegar
• 1 T dark sesame oil (um yah, don't like sesame so used just regular cooking oil)
• 1 T Asian chili sauce (here is where you can add more if you want it more spicy)
• 2 T sugar (as I mixed this I thought brown sugar would be good here as well)
• 1 T finely minced garlic
• 1 T very finely chopped minced ginger
• 2 whole green onions, minced
• 1/4 cup chopped cilantro

Mix all the ingredients together, besides the chicken.
Put the chicken in a resealable zip loc bag; pour the marinade over it. I reserved 1/4 cup of it to put on the chicken as it cooked. Let marinade for 30 minutes; or up to 8 hours. I did it overnight and it was sooo good.

Grill; bake; broil; do whatever you do with chicken. I slow grilled it. DELICIOUS! Doused it with the reserve marinade on each flip.

Though looking back at the recipe and what I "changed" in it, I now wonder what it would have tasted like had I actually followed the recipe. Huh! Oh well, maybe next time.

Enjoy!